Adults Seem to Have Most Impact on Teens’ School Success

March 22nd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

THURSDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) — Teachers and parents play a
greater role than peers in keeping teens engaged in school, researchers
have found.

The findings challenge the widely held belief that peers have the
greatest impact on the lives of adolescents, according to a report from
the University of Michigan.

For the study, the investigators analyzed data from nearly 1,500
students from 23 schools in the Washington, D.C., area who were
interviewed when they were in 7th, 9th and 11th grades. The questions
asked by the researchers focused on four indicators of student engagement:
compliance with school rules, participation in extracurricular activities,
identification with their school and the value placed on education.

The students also were asked about the support they received from
teachers, parents and peers.

As expected, the students’ school engagement decreased over the years
and the decline was more steep among boys than among girls, according to
the report, which is published in the current issue of the journal
Child Development.

The researchers also found, however, that students’ school engagement
was just as likely to be positively affected as negatively affected by
their peers.

In addition, the results indicated that any negative influences from
peers could be counteracted by social support from adults, and from
teachers in particular. This support included encouraging student
engagement, stressing the importance of obtaining an education, and making
it easier for students to take part in extracurricular activities.

“We were surprised to find that most adolescents continue to be
influenced greatly by their teachers and parents when it comes to school
engagement,” study author Ming-Te Wang, a faculty research fellow at the
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a university
news release.

“Even though this is a stage when young people are moving toward
establishing autonomy and independence, teachers and parents remain
important in helping them stay involved in school, and in extracurricular
activities,” Wang said. “And this is true for all ethnic groups and races,
and across all the economic groups we studied.”

“Adolescence is a period when relationships with adults who aren’t your
parents become increasingly important,” Wang added. “Our results suggest
that supportive teachers play a particularly important role in keeping
teens engaged in school.”

More information

The Nemours Foundation offers teens advice about extracurricular activities.